Modern drilling often involves scores of people and multiple inter-connecting activities. Obtaining real-time information about ongoing operations is of paramount importance for safe and/or efficient drilling. As a result, modern rigs often have thousands of sensors actively measuring numerous parameters related to operations, in addition to information about the down-hole drilling environment.
Despite the multitude of sensors on today's rigs, a significant portion of rig activities and sensing problems remain difficult to measure with classical instrumentation. Person-in-the-loop sensing is often utilized in place of automated sensing.
By applying automated, computer-based video interpretation, continuous, robust, and accurate assessment of many different phenomena may potentially be achieved without requiring a person-in-the-loop. Automated interpretation of video data is commonly known as computer vision. Recent advances in computer vision technologies have led to significantly improved performance across a wide range of video-based sensing tasks. Computer vision may be used in some cases to improve safety, reduce costs and/or improve efficiency.
As drilling fluid is pumped into the wellbore and back up, it typically carries with it solid material known as drilling cuttings. These cuttings are typically separated from the drilling fluid on an instrument known as a shale shaker or shaker table. As the bulk of the drilling fluid passes through the shale shaker screen, a discernable fluid front is formed. The fluid front is the border between the area of the shale shaker screen which is substantially covered with drilling fluid and the area of the shale shaker which is comparatively free of drilling fluid. The process of separating the cuttings from the fluid may be difficult to monitor using classical instrumentation due to the violent nature of the shaking process. However, the location and orientation of the fluid front on the shale shaker is an important parameter to the drilling process that may be difficult to measure accurately. Currently this is somewhat difficult to measure and requires man-power to monitor.
The configuration of the shale shaker may be optimized based on the location of the fluid front, the size and/or characteristics of drill cuttings, the characteristics of the shale shaker screen being used, and/or other parameters. Adjusting the angle of the shale shaker, relative to level, may help maximize the efficiency and lifespan of the shale shaker and shaker screens. If a shaker table is at too steep of a level, the portion of the screens closest to the deposit of drilling fluid may become damaged more quickly by drill cuttings while the further removed portions of the screen are never utilized. A steep shaker angle may also lead to inefficient separation of the cuttings and the drilling fluid, thus complicating the gathering of information relating to the drill cuttings. If the angle of the shaker is too low, drilling fluid may simply run off the end of the shaker table, leading to lost drilling fluid and potential environmental contamination. The vibration speed of the shaker table may similarly be optimized in order to maximize the efficiency and the useful lifespan of a shaker table and shaker table screens.
Therefore, there is a need for an automated computer vision based technique for estimating the location of the fluid front on the shale shaker. Information from this system can be used to provide real-time information about the well-bore to the drill team, enabling real-time optimization of the shale shaker angle, thereby saving mud, and increasing efficiency.